To Sleep and Forget
by Rainbow-Jess
Summary: People were always saying that there was something after the end, and it never seemed true to me. But, I'm finding myself here in a new world, with a new life, and I'm finding someone who haunts my memories grabbing a hold of my heart. [Akuroku]


**To Sleep and Forget**  
♥♥♥

_The wall of fire died around us. He turned to me, his red hair moving behind his shoulders. "Axel…" I mumbled almost breathlessly. ___

"Let's meet again in the next life," he said quietly as a smile crossed his face and his electric green eyes turned their focus to me.

I nodded and stared intently back, focusing on his forehead; the intensity of his orbs was too much to take. "Yeah. I'll be waiting."

He breathed a hard laugh. "Silly. Just because you have a next life…" 

♥♥♥

I walked up to the suite door, threw my bags down, and searched my pockets for the key. "Damn it," I sighed. "I can't believe I lost the key already."

I sighed and bent over, working on collecting all of my bags, deciding that I should at least move them over; then maybe they wouldn't threaten someone's life expectancy. When I bent over, the door in front of me swung open, and I fell over in surprise, a sharp gasp escaping my throat.

I heard a sarcastic voice yelling over what sounded like the roar of video games. "So I'm gonna go get the pizza. It's under Dem-" and the voice cut off with an abrupt 'Oof!', and someone came tumbling down on top of me.

I looked up into hard green eyes, brushed on red surrounding them and black tattooed, I assumed, 'emo tears' being the only word I could think of for them, topped off by short eyebrows, glaring down at me. But they were surrounded by thin-framed metal glasses and were placed on a soft face, with rounded jaws and thin lips that were complimented by a small silver lip ring on the center of his bottom lip.

_"…Talk about blank with a capital 'B'." _

He pulled himself up from the ground, and brushed the 'dust' off of his green anddarker green plaid jeans that I, personally, thought were too tight for any guy to wear. He pulled down on the sleeves of his light brown sweater, covering his wrists, and fixed the wild red hair he had pulled back into a ponytail, with the tips of the top layer of his hair pointing up and back, and grumbled. "Who're you supposed to be?"

"I… umm… I'm Roxas. I'm new here…?" I stood up slowly and brushed my hand through my partly spiked blonde hair, and scratched the back of my neck.

"Ahh…" he hummed and nodded, crossed his arms over his chest, a light green plaid scarf folding under his arms, and leaned against the doorframe. "So, you're the newbie."

I nodded, I guess, because he sighed and pushed himself off of the hard frame, and helped me move my stuff to the side. "Well, come on. I'm going to get pizza… and the rest of the suite never likes the new guy. So I assume you should come with me, and when we get back, I'll introduce you."

His hand wrapped around my arm, crunching my puffy and oversized jacket under his large, thin hands and he dragged me over to the elevator. Pulling me to a rough stop beside him, he pressed the down arrow on the elevator. "So I'm Axel," he stated blankly.

I looked up to him, noticing just how much taller he was than me. He was probably around… nineteen or twenty. He glanced down, and gave me a quick smile, and a blush crossed my cheeks immediately.

I turned my head back down and glared at the shining metal of the elevator doors. "Damn, the stairs would be faster than this."

He chuckled behind me. "You've never been on these stairs. They're hell, kid." I nodded in understanding, and finally heard the hard _ding!_ of the elevator doors.

His glove-clad hand put itself on the base of my back and pushed me into the elevator. "Come on, kid. Move it." I fell forward, my hands barely stopping my fall, and my body quickly twisting around, just to come face to face with a jungle of green. "So tell me about yourself," he said with a grin, as he pulled back from my face.

"Ah… Um…" I stuttered, a blush still coating my cheeks. "Well… I'm seventeen, came from Florida…" I trailed off as he shook his hands, motioning for me to stop.

"Yeah, yeah; that's the boring stuff. I mean, tell me. Got a girlfriend… or maybe a boyfriend, if that's how you swing? Still a virgin? Ever been to a rave and gotten yourself wasted? Those types of things," he finished, nudging my side. He looked up as the door slid open, and a rather promiscuous couple strutted in.

Once the door closed, their lips immediately made contact, and three fourths of the elevator became theirs, and I was being shoved more and more into Axel. As I found myself pressed into his chest, my face burning more and more, I felt his arm shove out behind me and he angrily says "watch it, assholes."

He dropped his arm lazily behind my back, and laid it across my shoulders. The couple glared, but moved over eventually. Damn it. This blush won't go away, ever, will it? I gave a long sigh of relief when the door finally opened, and Axel shoved me out the door, and I, once again, almost fell, tripping over the small gap in between the floor and the elevator. At least he wasn't touching me anymore.

"My car's out in the lot and the pizza place is, mm, about ten minutes drive. So let's hurry up. The guys are rather… rowdy." He pointed out an old beat up red Jetta, surrounded by the rich kids' Mercedes, Porches and Lamborghinis.

"Ah… okay…" I was confused now. Most people who were at this school were, well, rich snobs. If all he could afford was a used Jetta, how did he manage to get in…?

I decided against questioning it, considering we were already in the car, and on our way to pick up the pizza, and, well, he could kill me and drop my body wherever he pleased. And who am I to know if he's a necrophiliac or not?

I sighed and focused on the front windshield. It was starting to frost over and the heater was melting the ice from the inside out. I heard him shuffle through a CD case and pull out his final choice, and place it into the cheap built in CD player, and he turned up the volume.

Soon enough, I had the Beatles stuck in my head.

_Sergeant Pepper's lonely, Sergeant Pepper's lonely, Sergeant Pepper's lonely hearts club band… _

I groaned and my hands were placed discreetly over my ears. He looked at me from the corner of his eye. "Not a Beatles Fan?"

I shook my head and laughed slightly. "Not Really… My dad overplayed them when I was young, I think."

_She's got a ticket to Ri-i-ide…_

I leaned back into the chair. "I'm more a Bravery, Scissor Sisters, and Panic! At the Disco fan myself." I looked over to see his disgusted face. He shook his head and pulled out the Beatles CD, and threw the case of CDs at me.

"Choose one," he muttered. "They're all good to me."

I nodded and flipped through the endless pages of CDs. I grinned as I came across Queen's 'Jazz' album, and pushed it into the player with a smile.

He looked at me questioningly. "Queen?"

I smiled up at him, my eyes closed and nodded. "Everyone loves Queen!"

He grinned and began bobbing his head to the beat, and I followed soon after. And, typical me, I started to mumble along with the lyrics. "_Hey I was just a skinny lad, Never knew no good from bad, But I knew life before I left my Nursery…"_

He turned and laughed, slowly joining in. "_Left alone with big fat Fanny, she was such a naughty nanny. Heap big woman, you made a bad boy out of me!"_

We both started laughing. And he moved his hands along with the drumming on the steering wheel, and I clapped. The words started again, and as he flipped up the volume, we both began belting out the words.

No matter _how _badly we both sang.

_I've been singing with my band, across the wire across the land  
I seen every blue eyed floozy on the way  
But their beauty and their style, went kind of smooth after a while  
Take me to them dirty ladies every time_

Oh won't you take me home tonight? Oh down beside your red firelight  
Oh and you give it all you got  
Fat bottomed girls you make the rocking world go round  
Fat bottomed girls you make the rocking world go round!

The song went on, and we kept singing; and with perfect timing, we pulled into the parking lot just as the song came to a closing.

We couldn't stop laughing. Whether it was from the complete act of homosexuality that just graced this car, or the fact that, despite the fact that we'll deny it for as long as we live, we actually had _fun_.

"Dear God, Kid. You're weird." He placed an arm on my head, as we walked forward into the pizza parlor. "Starting to sing a song? Man. We can't let the guys hear about this, got it? They won't let me live it down."

I pushed him off and watched him smirk. "Yeah. I wouldn't want them thinking you were a homo or anything." I looked him up and down. He sure didn't look like one. But… I don't know. I'm having my suspicions.

"What're you lookin' at, kid?" He jerked his head forward motioning for me to grab the pizza sitting on the counter. I did as told, and carried the boxes back out to the car, quickly placing them in the backseat.

The car ride was mainly silent, except for the quiet sounds of Queen drifting from the speakers. "So you still didn't answer my questions." I snapped out of my daze and looked up.

I scratched my chin. "Uhmm… what were those again?" I looked up and smirked. "Sorry…"

He shook his head. "No worries, Kid. I simply asked: Girlfriend or Boyfriend? Virgin? Alcohol?"

I shifted in my seat. "Yes, first one. No, and I'm regretting it. Yes, bad choice." I turned to look out the window.

He loosened his grip on the steering wheel. "How'd you end up here?"

"Had to get away." I sighed, my breath making a circle on the window. "Got the money from my Aunt and Uncle."

He nodded, as if he understood. I don't know if he did or didn't; But maybe, by the look of this Jetta, he had wanted to get away also.

The rest of the ride was completely silent. We turned off the Queen CD in fear of bursting into song again, and the only noise that was evident was the heavy rumbling of the motor under the hood. We pulled up to the lot of the school, Axel grabbed the pizza and we walked back in, heading back to the elevator.

He leaned against the wall, his eyes closed. "The guys aren't gonna accept you right away, you know." His voice was quiet and rough; muffled, it seemed. So I looked up to him and realized why. He had his scarf wrapped around his mouth.

I chuckled to myself; for a minute there, I had thought it was _really _sexy. I coughed and stood up straight, my hand placed back on the back of my neck, rubbing the knots out. _Sexy_?What the_ hell?_ "Yeah, I know."

I stared ahead, beginning to zone out of the real world, and focus in on my imagination, thoughts twisting through my mind over and over. I figured we might be nearing the end of the ride, so I reopened my eyes, to, once again, find those enticing green eyes in front of mine. He grinned, and opened his mouth to speak.

"Kid, you really _are _weird. I'd have thought you'd have pulled away from me by now, considerin' you've got a girlfriend and all that," he said with a wink. _Shit._ He's _right_. I shoved my arms out, pushing him away, and skittered to the opposing side of the elevator.

"You're a bit forward, aren't you?" He's not gay, he's _not _gay, was repeating in my mind. Even if he _were _gay, he wouldn't be attracted to _me_, because we _just met_, and I wouldn't be attracted to _him,_ because I most certainly do _not _view guys in that way.

The door opened, and I rushed out, headed back to the dorm, and, when I shook the doorknob, I realized that I did _not _have a key.

_Wonderful. _

He strolled up behind me, grabbed the collar of my jacket, and pulled me backwards. "If you don't have a key, stay out of the way of the person who _does_." His voice was hard now. What happened in the last five minutes to get him… angry? Is that the right word for this? What happened to get him angry with me, I don't know. But obviously, something had.

Or maybe, he just put on some type of façade when he was around the dorm.

Or maybe he just put on a frontage when he was around me…

He opened the door, and walked in, closing it behind him in my face. _Bi-polar much?_ I clenched my jaw, and opened the door once again, pulling my stuff into the room one bag at a time. All the guys were swarmed around the pizza boxes; All except Axel.

He walked over to me, grabbed half of my bags and motioned for me to grab the others, and walked over to the last room of the suite. He opened the door, and threw my bags in. "Since you're the last one, you get the single room. Also seeing as you don't know any of them, you wouldn't want to share a room with them."

I nodded, pulling my bags all the way in, and examined the room. One bed. One desk. One closet. One _everything_.

I felt a pang of… of loneliness_. One really _is _the loneliest number. _

I looked up to Axel. He was standing against the wall, my laptop case still over his arm, eying the room annoyed. I stood back up straight, letting the handles of my bag fall back down, limp once again. "Can I ask you something?"

He snapped out of whatever form of trace he was in, and looked over to me. "What is it?"

I shrugged and let out a breath. "Why'd you all of a sudden get so… testy?"

He walked over to my bed, dropping my laptop case on my future bed, and turned to look at me. Placing a hand on my shoulder, he said. "Don't worry about it," and stepped out of the room, closing the door tightly behind him.

_"You're coming with me, conscious or not. Then you'll hear the story."_


End file.
